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In Jerusalem, momentum is building for the international meeting to discuss implementing the two state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict slated for this fall. In calling for the conference, U.S. President George Bush has apparently pulled some strings in all quarters to create a constructive atmosphere. IsraCast sees signs that Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has implemented a new agenda. He has discarded his unilateralism opting for risks and concessions in bilateral talks with the Palestinians resembling that of the Labor party. This approach may also be designed to influence Israeli public opinion.

'By and large, European media coverage is biased against Israel' - that's the assessment of Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, Chairman of the Board of Fellows of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. In an interview with IsraCast, Gerstenfeld also charged that Israel's government have proved to be 'verbal vegetarians' when it comes to confronting the problem.

About to enter the home-stretch of his second and final term, U.S. President George Bush is making a final attempt to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement after the Hamas coup in Gaza. The IsraCast analysis is that Bush is exploiting the split between Hamas and Fatah to unify West Bank Palestinians and moderate Arab states on an accelerated two-state solution. Bush told the Palestinians they must renounce Hamas and terrorism and recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Israelis had to settle the Negev and Galilee and not the West Bank.

On the first anniversary of the Second Lebanon War, Israel was soul searching about the 163 Israeli soldiers and civilians who were killed and the several thousand others who were wounded last summer. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert toured part of the northern border declaring he was right to launch the war in the face of the Hezbollah provocations. IsraCast is of the view that Olmert is now on political death row trying to appeal a condemnatory verdict by the final Winograd report that could lead to his resignation.

A senior IDF officer, responsible for overseeing the supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza , has rejected allegations that the Palestinian population will soon be facing starvation and other deprivation. In a briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee Gen. Yusuf Mislav said Israeli policy is to ensure that Palestinians in Gaza receive adequate humanitarian aid - Israel refuses to have any contact with the radical Hamas regime in Gaza that identifies with Iran's aim to wipe Israel off the map. IsraCast quotes Gen. Mislav as saying : 'The Hamas regime actually launched a mortar attack on Israeli milk supplies to Gaza today as part of its propaganda campaign about looming starvation'.

The recent surge in IDF strikes against terrorist activity in the Gaza Strip indicates that Israel has adopted a zero tolerance policy similar to that on the West Bank. The new Defense Minister Ehud Barak is overseeing this approach while IDF Chief of Staff Gaby Ashkenazi is in command on the ground. After hearing accounts of recent briefing by the Chief of Staff and senior IDF officers, IsraCast has the impression that the Gaza Strip has become the focal point in blocking the Iranian thrust to threaten Israel from both its northern and southern borders.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has spelled out a series of concessions to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his West Bank government. In a briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee, Olmert spoke of lifting some West Bank checkpoints in addition to transferring hundreds of millions of Palestinian tax money to Abbas and seeking a new approach to peace talks. But IsraCast reports that Olmert also stressed that his 'calculated risks' were conditioned on Abbas leading a 'Hamas-free' government.

The Sharm el Sheik summit was a high- profile show of solidarity with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his bitter confrontation with Hamas, the radical Islamists. After Hamas gunmen routed Fatah forces from the Gaza Strip, the Palestinians now have two separate governments- Gaza is run by Hamas while Fatah - supported Abbas rules on the West Bank. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to arrive soon as a peace envoy. Maj. Gen. ( res) Shalom Harari told IsraCast that Tony Blair should draw on his Northern Ireland experience in order to make any progress in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.

Hamas succeeded in getting into the act - it upstaged the Sharm el Sheik summit by releasing a recording of captured IDF soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit. The emergency summit, hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was called as a show of solidarity with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas whose Fatah movement was driven out of the Gaza Strip in a bloody showdown with Hamas last week. IsraCast is of the view, that although the summit events will be a sign of things to come the real test will be over security and terror issue on the West Bank which is controlled by Abbas.

Hamas has released a recorded message from captured IDF soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit. The message is posted on the Web site of Hamas's military wing. Israeli officials are considering their reaction to the recording. IsraCast notes the proposal of Maj. Gen. (res) Uzzi Dayan who proposes that Israel should condition the Hamas release of Shalit as the first condition of any humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip.

The rush is on to retrieve whatever is possible out of the Palestinian rubble in the wake of the Hamas takeover in Gaza. IsraCast perceives it as an international rescue mission to 'engineer' a separate Fatah peace partner headed by President Mahmoud Abbas. In light of performance record of president Mahmoud Abbas and his failure to halt repeated terror attacks and suicide bombings from the West Bank, the outcome is hard to foresee.

Israel's new defense minister Ehud Barak is now faced with his first challenge - how to respond to the latest Qassam rocketing of Sderot from the Gaza Strip. IsraCast is of the view that the total Hamas takeover of Gaza has altered its 'hybrid' status and that Israel should now consider new responses. These could include temporary interruptions to the water and electricity that Israel still supplies to Gaza.

What should we do to help President Mahmoud Abbas and his West Bank government and weaken Hamas and its grip on the Gaza Strip? The signs are that both U.S. President George Bush and Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert see eye to eye in principle. The U.S. though may seek more than Israel would like to give when it comes to releasing terrorist prisoners, lifting roadblocks and other security related issues on the West Bank. IsraCast anticipates that the Hamas takeover of Gaza will be viewed as an overkill both of Palestinian lives and politically.

The dust has not yet settled after the takeover of Gaza by Hamas, the radical Islam movement. From his headquarters in Ramallah on the West Bank, President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed a new prime minister Salam Fayyad to replace Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Haniyeh refuses to step down contending that his Hamas members control two- thirds of the Palestinian parliament. Now in the U.S., Prime Minister Ehud Olmert talks of a new opportunity arising from the split between Hamas and Fatah. A leading Israeli analyst Dr. Dan Schueftan previously told IsraCast that although today's events should have been visible from the outset it is most important to see their ramifications on future developments.

The Hamas takeover of Gaza has upset not only the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation but could also have consequences for neighboring which also faces an Islamist threat. IsraCast is of the view that the Hamas expulsion of President Mahmoud Abbas from Gaza is one of the most dramatic developments since the start of the Oslo peace process in 1993 and casts doubt on Palestinian readiness to accept the two state solution envisaged in the Road Map peace plan.

With his election victory in the Labor party, Ehud Barak must now show the Israeli people he has answers to their pressing security problems. IsraCast is of the view that Barak's comeback is a direct result of Israel's failure to win the Second Lebanon War last summer, an event that has shaken public confidence in the nation's leadership. Barak's expected appointment as defense minister may strengthen Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - but if Barak succeeds he could eventually upstage Olmert and become the 'de facto' leader in security and foreign affairs.

In Britain, the University and College Union (UCU) vote to promote a boycott of Israeli academic institutions has aroused a furious Israeli reaction. The UCU boycott was said to be in protest to Israel's actions in the conflict with the Palestinians. Even super-dove Yossi Beilin of the left wing Labor party called on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to condemn the UCU decision. Otherwise Beilin said the outgoing leader's term would be stained by such an ignominy. The UCU resolution, approved by 158 to 99, is only a recommendation until approved by a majority of the body's 120,000 members. IsraCast evaluates the UCU motion and other manifestations of what appear to be a double standard of morality applied only to the Jewish state.

The Palestinian rockets continued crashing into Sderot this week killing and wounding Israeli civilians. One of Israel's responses is to arrest Hamas politicians and IsraCast points to the possibility that they may also face targeted killing if they do not halt the Qassams from Gaza.

How will Israel react after a Qassam rocket from Gaza killed an Israeli woman driving in Sderot on Monday night? IsraCast says subsequent statements by Israeli officials indicate that Hamas political leaders may be put on Israel's hit list in addition to those who actually send the launchers of the rockets. What is certain is that targeted killings and other counter-terror operation will be escalated now but a major ground operation into the Gaza Strip is not in the offing.

Palestinians kept up their rocket barrage at the Israeli town of Sderot on Friday - this week alone they have terrorized the town with some one-hundred Qassams crashing down by day and night. The IDF has been ordered to step up counter-terror strikes but a senior officer rules out a major ground operation at this time. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also appears ready to adopt this policy. IsraCast is of the view that Olmert will try and ride out the coming days with the expectation that his Labor coalition partners will elect either Ehud Barak or Ami Ayalon as party leader who will then take over as defense minister.